Letters in Two Parts, Part 1 · LETTER 38
To the right honourable my Lord LINDSAY. (38)
Right honourable & my very good Lord.
GRace, mercy & peace be to your Lo: Pardon my boldness to express my self to your Lo: At this so needful a time, when your wearied & friendless mother-kirk is looking round about her, to see if any of her sons doeth really bemoan her desolation: Therefore, my dear & worthy Lord, I beseech you in the bowels of Christ, pity that widow-like sister & spouse of Christ. I know, her husband i… not dead, but he seemeth to be in another countrey, & seeth well & beholdeth who are his true & tender hearted friends, who dare venture under the water to bring out to dry land sinking truth, & who of the Nobles will cast up their arm to warde a blow off the crowned head of our Royal law-giver who reigneth in Zion, who will plead & contend for …acob in the day of his controversie. It i… now time, my worthy & noble Lord, for you who are the little nurse-fathers (under our Soveraign Prince] to put on courage for the Lord Jesus, & to take up a fallen orphan speaking out of the dust, & to embrace in your arms Christ's Bride: he hath no more in Scotland that is the delight of his eyes, but that one little sister, whose breasts were once well fashioned; She once ravished her welbeloved with her eyes, and overcame him with her beauty; She looked forth as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, terrible as an army with banners; Her stature was like the palm-tree, and her breasts like clusters of grapes, & she held the King in his galleries, Cant. 4: 9. & 6: 10. & 7: 5, 7. But now the crown is fallen from her head, and her gold waxed dim, & our white Nazarites are become black as the coal. Blessed are they who will come out and help Christ against the mighty: The shields of the earth & the Nobles are debters to Christ for their honour, & should bring their glory and honour to the new Ierusalem, Rev. 21: 24. Alas that great men should be so far from subjecting themselves to the sweet yoke of Christ, that they burst his bonds asunder, and think, they dow not goe on foot when Christ is on horseback, and that every nod of Christ commanding as a King, is a load like a mountain of iron, and therefore they say, This man shall not reign over us, we must have another King then Christ in his own house. Therefore kneel to Christ and kiss the Son, and let him have your Lo: vote as your alone Law-giver. I am sure when you leave this old waste J…nes, of this perishing life, and shall reckon with your hoste, & depart hence and take shipping, & make over for eternity, which is the yonder side o… time, & a sand-glass of threescore short yeers is running out; To look over your shoulder then, to that which ye have done, spoken, & suffered for Christ, his dear bride (that he ransomed with that blood, which is more precious then gold,] & for truth & the freedom of Christ's Kingdom; your accounts shall more sweetly smile & laugh upon you, then if you had two world's of gold to leave to your posterity. O my dear Lord, consider that our Master, eternity, judgement, & the last reckoning will be upon us in the twinckling of an eye: The blast of the last trumpet; now hard at hand, will cry down all Acts of Parliaments, all the determinations of pretended Assemblies against Christ our Law-giver: There will be shortly a proclamation by one standing in the clouds, that time shall be no more, and that court with Kings of clay shall be no more, & prisons, confinements, forfeiturs of Nobles, wrath of Kings, hazard of lands, houses, & name for Christ, shall be no more. This world's span-length of time is drawn now to less then half an inch, and to the point of the evening of the day, of this old and gray-haired world: And therefore be fixed & fast for Christ & his truth for a time, & fear not him whose life goeth out at his nostrils, who shall die as a man. I am perswaded Christ is responsall, and law-biding, to make recompence for any thing that is hazarde…, or given out for him: losses for Christ are but our goods given out in bank in Christs hand. Kings earthly are well-favoured little clay gods and tim's-idol, but a sight of our invisible King shall decry and darken all the glory of this world. At the day of Christ, truth shall be truth, and not treason. Alas it is pitiful, that silence, when the thatch of our Lord's house hath taken fire, is now the flower and the bloom of court and state-wisdom; And to cast a covering over a good profession, (as if it blushed at light,) is thought a canny and sure way through this life: But the safest way I am perswaded, is, to tine & win with Christ, & to hazard fairly for him; for heaven is but a company of Noble venturers for Christ. I dare hazard my soul, Christ shall grow green and blossom as the rose of Sharon yet in Scotland; howbeit now his leaf seemeth to wither and his root to dry up. Your noble Ancestors have been inrolled amongst the worthies of this nation, as the sure friends of the bridegroom and valiant for Christ: I hope, ye will follow on, to come to the streets for the same Lord; the world is still at yea & nay with Christ: it shall be your glory & the sure foundation of your house (now when houses are tumbling down, & birds building their nests, & thorns & briers are growing up where Nobles did spread a table) if you engage your estate & nobility for this noble King Jesus, with whom the created Powers of the world are still in tops: all the world shall fall before him, & (as God liveth) every arm lifted up to take the crown off his royal head, or that refuseth to hold it upon his head, shall be broken from the shoulder-blad: the eyes that behold Christ weep in sackcloth, & wallow in his blood, & will not help, even these eyes shall rot away in their eye-holes, O if ye & the Nobles of this land, saw the beauty of that worlds wonder, Jesus our King, & the glory of him who is Angels wonder & heavens wonder for excellency! Oh what would men count of clay-estates, of time-eaten life, of wormeaten & moth-eaten worldly glory, in comparison of that fairest, fairest of Gods creation, the son of the father's delights. I have but small experience of suffering for him, but let my Judge & witness in heaven, lay my soul in the ballance of justice, if I finde not a young heaven, & a little Paradise of glorious comforts, & soul-delighting love-kisses of Christ, here beneath the moon in suffering for him & his truth: & that glory, joy, & peace, & fire of love, I thought had been kept while supper time, when we shall get leisure to feast our fill upon Christ; I have felt it in glorious beginnings, in my bonds, for this princely Lord Jesus. Oh it is my sorrow, my daily pain, that men will not come & see: I would now be ashamed to beleeve that it should be possible for any soul to think that he could be a loser for Christ, suppose he should lend Christ the Lordship of Lindsay, or some such great worldly estate. Therefore my worthy & Dear Lord set your face against the opposits of Jesus, & let your soul take courage to come under his banner, to appeare as his souldier for him, & the blessings of a falling Kirk, the prayers of the prisoners of hope who wait for Sions joy, & the good will of him that dwelt in the bush & it burned not, shall be with you. To his saving Grace I recommend your Lo: & your House & am still Christs prisoner &.
Aberd. Sept. 7. 1637. Your Lo: obliged servant in his sweet Lord Iesus S. R.